Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Joseph Hinman, The Trace of God: A Rational Warrant for Belief (Grand Viaduct 2014).
Truth in advertising: Joseph (Joe) was a student of mine at the University of Texas at Arlington back in the early 1980s. I even remember a paper he wrote in my class on the immanence and transcendence of God, calling for both in a balanced understanding. So I may be a bit biased in my recommendation of his new book (several more are on the way). But he takes the notion of religious experience which has been in the back seat of the car (I’ve put it there in the past as a philosopher of religion), gives it suitable “rational” warrant, and puts it in the front seat, indeed, perhaps even in the driver’s seat. His definitions for religious experience (RE) are clear and his primary arguments for it are in the second chapter. I like his quote about freedom:
I am arguing for freedom from the need to prove the existence of God … freedom from the need to prove the validity of philosophic thought; freedom from the need to prove that philosophy need not be embarrassed about not being science; freedom from the need to prove that not all subjectivity is a sign of mental instability; freedom from the need to fear the subjective (pp. 7-8).
